Quick Reactions To Victory Over Arsenal

March 12, 2011

1. I was fuming when I heard the line-up. I’ve tried to limit knee jerk reactions to the team news given the amount of times Sir Alex Ferguson has made me look a knob head for doing so but I couldn’t hold back today. I was furious. Hearing that Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher were now also injured allowed it to make more sense but I couldn’t understand having Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes on the bench when we were playing a midfield like that. At this rate, we were going out of the FA Cup and who was to say our players would then show up against Marseille. Fabio, who hardly ever plays, and when he does, has been put on the left wing maybe once. John O’Shea, who has been used mostly at right back was the better half of the central midfield alongside Darron Gibson. Then Rafael, who again, is not a winger. This was obviously before I knew that Wayne Rooney was going to be sitting back with the midfield. Still, to play that 4 against a passing team seemed to be like total suicide.
2. The Twins are good are getting forward from their full-back positions and today we saw their value as wingers. The two combined 15 minutes in when Fabio put it on a plate for Rafael to score, but his header was high. It was a taster of what was to come though. Fabio raced forward then played through a great ball to his brother with the outside of his boot. Rafael then passed it back to Fabio outside the box, who tapped it to Rooney, who played in a great ball to Chicharito. A fantastically placed header from the Mexican lead to a great save from Almunia, before Fabio tapped in the rebound. I love those twins.
3. Whilst those two lads were definitely a highlight, there are several positives to focus on today, most important of those, Antonio Valencia’s return. Wow. I was expecting when he did come back, whenever that might have been, it would take him a while to settle, and that would be fair enough. It was like he had never been away. The second goal was all about him. There were just 17 seconds between Van der Sar rolling the ball out to him and Rooney making it 2-0. We’ve got a winger again! Nani has done a great job down that flank this season and the idea of him and Valencia being available for our last few games should fill us all with massive hope. It was great to see him out there again.
4. Edwin Van der Sar was named Man of the Match. How can a player good enough to be named MOTM, when the best two teams in the country play, be retiring? The fans did our bit in trying to get him to change his mind though. “One more year” and “Fergie, sign him up!” as well as singing his name on repeat for large chunks of the second half. He applauded the Stretford End in the midst of this, which just increased the volume. There are suggestions that Fergie is trying to convince him to stay around. It’s nice to see the fans doing their bit too.
5. It’s great to have Vida back, who serves as a bring wall for any opposition team trying to cross the ball in, but then Chris Smalling was his match today. Great young player doing his bit to rob Chicharito of the best signing of last summer title. So composed and confident for a lad so young.
6. Whilst not wanting to spoil such a high-spirited reaction, the Arsenal fans singing over the Manchester United Foundation choir at half-time has to get a mention. This is a fucking charity and whether they’re United based or otherwise, you’ve got to show more respect than that. For a fanbase that seems to believe they ooze class, they exposed themselves for what they really are.
7. The Wayne Rooney we know and loved was great. His first touch reappeared, his passing was good and he looked up for it. The chance to make it 2-0 looked to have gone but Rooney managed to get his head to it to seal the result. With goals against Chelsea, City and now Arsenal, you have to applaud him for showing up in these games. If the press weren’t still aboard their anti-Rooney campaign, they would have praised his restraint at Anfield last week, with Scholes and Rafael squaring up to the vermin after Carragher ripped a hole in Nani’s leg. Rooney calmly walked around, not wanting to get involved, showing signs of supposed “maturity.” Fuck that, I want a player with fire in his belly. He looked more like Rooney of old today than we’ve probably seen all season, working hard going forward as well as in defence.
8. We showed a great fighting spirit and desire today, something which had missing at Anfield and the second half at Stamford Bridge. It was great to see. We had a strong defence which meant the rest of the team had the opportunity to go out there and prove themselves. They did. I’d hoped Arsenal would be ready to bottle it, facing the prospect of 3 cup exits in less than a fortnight, but when I saw that team I knew they’d be up for it. They all were, routinely going around hugging and kissing each other ahead of kick-off, patting each other on the bum. Soft southern fairies. Our lads save their hugs for celebrating goals. Fergie instilled that fight in them, he’s harboured the siege mentality well, and now is the time to unleash that as we chase the double (being realistic). Come on reds.

176 Comments

Thank god real football isnt like a football manager game - too many think it is....

Anyway- Scott - would be interesting to compare the two teams fielded today (with subs) as to what they cost. Could it be that United had a less exspensive team than Arsenal - now that would be even harder to swallow for a biased press.....

Now for the youth team to go to shitfield and make it a perfect weekend by beating the scum.

Really loooking forward to watching the game. Apparently they are expecting as many as 10,000 at the game. Heard somewhere that Pogba, Tuinnicliffe and Ravel were at the game last Sunday. Hope the injustice of that TACKLE inspires them to get the result.

Just watching Sunday Supplement and that Oliver Holt seems to have a agenda - anti Fergie.

RedHarry4Life - Hello mate. Yeah since the programme has started, all they have been talking about is Arsene and Arsenal. Oliver Holt just said what a massive fan of Wenger he is. They are so sympathetic towards him. Cunts the lot of them.

@Kings
Hello mate.Yeah agree with you about redknapp.He is another knob but i still respect that guy for what he has done with spurs.Its not an easy job to knock ac milan out(Ask Ourself).
But i still would love to face A english club in the quarters.I want us to beat the living hell out of terry and co.I think we will draw shaktar or shcalke and for me both are tricky tie.But with valencias comeback i am quite confident that if we play well we will reach semis quite easily.

Fat bastard Shpehard reading the back pages of various newspapers - he just said about Fergie's one match touchline referring to it as his 'rant' towards referee Martin Atkinson. Fucking cunt. Fuck off and die. Oliver Holt is the best of the lot - Wenger's lickspittle. Now he's championing CLLC's right be re-instated as England's captain.

Ash - Hello mate. Yeah he's certainly turned them around in the last 2 and a half years, but he should learn to respect the teams left in the competition, rather than assuming that they will beat anyone but Barcelona. Real Madrid and Bayern are still there (both holding away leg leads from the 1st leg) and either one of them will take them to the cleaners.

Did not watch the game yesterday, just watched highlights and of course got the details from RoM.

Was Townsend a cunt as usual while co commentating?

Bloody brilliant twins and Smalling has covered with so much class for Rio. Now for Tuesday, lets do the business and give us Barca next, yes Barca... Lets beat them and shove it up the throat of every pundit who has an orgasm every time they even mention their name. As for the FA cup, would rather get shitty in the final (IF they make it) Beating them at Wembley in the final would be far more heartbreaking...

I was excited when saw the line ups. Said after the liverpool game, no point playing def midfielder if we didn't have anyone good enough to play that role, but o'shea played well in mid today. Wouldnlt play him there every week but did well today. Respect to gibson for not being over run. Thought we'd manage to fast forward on attack and so it proved, with fabio earning me a nice 170 pound courtesy of ladbrokes so nice one!! But overall yesterday, glad we played well for first time in an age, good result before european game, another nail in arsenal's coffin for another season without silverware so happy happy

Ok, got to eat humble pie now but with a big smile on my face. i asked if SAF was trying to throw the match (& MG made his/her opinion known). so though it was a huge gamble, we came through it unscathed and am glad. i've learnt to trust in SAF.
overall i'll say keep the fire burning.....its MAN UTD!

True, the Arsenal fans showed their lack of class by trying to drown the choir at half-time but they DID show appreciation for Evra, actually likening him to world-famous philosophers.
I know Paddy is always ready with a soundbite but singing "Evra is a Kant" puts him on a new level !

In your words though it was 'Decent'. At United Decent isn't good enough and the way some people are making bigging up his performance here is laughable. If you seriously take time to watch his play for a few minutes you will see a player who time and time again is in no mans land and has the ball played around him. Yesterday was no different and when he looked at his best was when he was on the ball moving forward, he seems like if we are to get good performances out of him regularry and in more than a few cameos he needs to be playing in an AMC role of a 3 man midfield and it just limits his usefulness imho

As i said on another post: This is all about Fergie showing why he runs the club and we don't. The whole pub i was in was shocked to see the team line up. Me and my mate were the onlyones keeping the faith up, reminding the others about the last time we fielded a "reserve"optioned team against Arsenal.

Scholesy flying into tackles and showing the young ones what it's all about was fucking priceless yesterday. Should've seen yellow or possibly red but was great to watch! Unlike Arsenal's young talents.. ie Wilshire.. our twins, smalling, etc are being brought up by winners

Surprised that you thought that STR, referring to point 1. I just had a go at some of those pessimistic ones who thought they knew better than SAF. Disappointed really, that people, especially you, would doubt SAF after all that he has done and he has no need to prove anything to anyone.
When I first saw the line-up, I was going "wow, that looks really interesting" and it never occurred to me one bit that we would go out. It really didn't worry me at all... maybe I had as much confidence in SAF as I had in the suspicion that Arsenal would be crumbling right around this timeframe.

Shame on all those who doubted SAF, doubted our players, doubted our twins.

Rooney showed himself well today - give him the ball, and let him play in a position where he sees the ball and he will not disappoint. Have to say he looked very good playing deep. Reckon he will be used more there and going forward.
Also have to say Gibson (who has never been a favourite of mine) had a decent game - looked like he was playing a holding midfield role. He covered a massive amount of ground, cut off channels they were looking to exploit, and more than once "made something happen" which he has rarrly done in previous games.
Raphael showed he can not only play wide but moved inside when Valencia came on and did great there too.

i was however, expecting man utd to win the match last night? know why? because everybody in that team has the passion to play. this is what we have been missing so much. everybody plays a good game. when sir alex says he;ll bring the strongest squad, he mean it. this is the best squad ive seen in this season, i can say. and why nobody mentions smalling? if its not edwin, smalling will definitely be motm